Students See Debt As Key Election Issue

MEDIA RELEASE

Attn: Education and Political Reporters

STUDENTS SEE DEBT AS KEY ELECTION ISSUE

Students from the seven Tertiary Institutes in Christchurch and Otago gathered yesterday to form DEBTiE - Determined to Elect Better Tertiary Education. DEBTiE aims to campaign in the lead up to the General Election against the oppressive tertiary policies which have already caused tertiary students over $3.2 billion of debt.

Student representatives from the University of Canterbury, the Christchurch College of Education, the Christchurch Polytechnic, the University of Lincoln, the Otago Polytechnic, the Dunedin College of Education and the University of Otago gathered in Christchurch to express their concern at the huge public social and financial cost that such debt is having on the country. They are now pledging to run a large joint campaign to highlight the issues surrounding student debt and to change Government policy.

DEBTiE will be running several public awareness campaigns as well as promoting alternatives to the present tertiary education and actively taking its concerns to the streets ion protest.

"The issue of debt is so huge that students and their associations cannot face it alone." Said Otago University Students' Association President, Steve Day. "We need the public to vote on the fact that the vast majority of any government surplus in the past few years is now made up of student debt, which the government treats as an asset. Student debt is nothing more than a high tax on education."

$3 Billion Tax Cuts

$3 Billion Student Debt

Where'd you get your money?

Did you steal it from your children?

Stephen Day President Otago University Students' Association

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